Actually, that would be worse, because much like our past closers (such as Rodney), he's much WORSE when he's not pitching in a save situation. I can't fault him for being so inconsisent, though, because almost every closer is. Even Mariano Rivera has blown some huge games.

The only confidence I have in a win tonight would be with JV. The bats are cold right now and the pen is frightening to say the least.

"True loyalty is that quality of service that grows under adversity and expands in defeat. Any street urchin can shout applause in victory, but it takes character to stand fast in defeat. One is noise - the other, loyalty." -Fielding Yost

I feel that Prince will come through to knock in some extra bases for the runners, so I will go with the HOPEFUL MVP candidate Miguel Cabrera. I think if he goes 3-4 our offense will overcome any pitching problems.

I agree, JV probably need to go at least into the 8th inning. I really hope the bats wake up and we can finally get some runs going, we need to string together hits which we started to last night but still left a ton of runners on base

He's been quietly solid in this series. He'll get on base a lot and hopefully he's hitting 2nd with the big fella and the bigger fella drive him in. JV has got to be on tonight. Valverde will most likely pitch the 9th so god help us at that point.

“When your team is winning, be ready to be tough, because winning can make you soft. On the other hand, when your team is losing, stick by them. Keep believing” ― Bo Schembechler

The comparison available for Verlander is not Jack Morris, who is merely a great one-time Tiger pitcher; the space Verlander can ascend to with a win tonight and a further deep run is that of Michigan legend. Yzerman, Kaline territory.

If he pitches 9 innings and wins it will be the greatest thing I've seen in Detroit sports since Yzerman carried the Wings halfway to a Cup on one leg.

if you count his work in the last few years of his career, Morris's WS for the Tigers and later with the Twins puts him rarified air. JV is teh greater talent, but he needs to come up big tonight then do it a few more times to solidly overtake Morris. (I suspect he will)

I'm out of Bolivia. Sex trafficking, kidnapping, drug running, and not a decent beer to be had. Man that sucked.

For the rest of my days if you don't do your job I will refer to you as a Valverde (n) or if you didn't do your job; pulling a Valverde (v).

I seriously hate Valverde. Did anyone notice him on the mound last night? He threw in a little extra hip thrust in his horrible routine before his pitches. I hate him so much. It's like he tries to piss everyone off. He is the Jonny Gomes of baseball. Biggest fucking worthless piece of shit ever. Douche bag.

or uh, Duder, or El Duderino if you're not into the whole brevity thing.

he isnt having the lights out season he had last year but he still put together a solid year and is a good closer. yeah he blew the game and that sucks and we should have won the series last night but he was fine the rest of the series. sometimes you just have a bad game.

but he clearly did not suck last year until struggles at the very end. Every team expects their closer to be Mo Rivera and there was only one of those.

At this point it appears that, with a very few exceptions, closers are disposable. Maybe get a good to great year or two or maybe three out of them then their arms are fried. MLB managers have their pens set up the way they do because it wins games even while it shortens the careers of guys that throw one inning of pure gas 3-4 days/week. The alternative is losing more often.

I'm out of Bolivia. Sex trafficking, kidnapping, drug running, and not a decent beer to be had. Man that sucked.

Valverde was PERFECT in saves last year. Thats his job! Save games. If he gave up ukpteen runs in a couple other games, who gives a rats ass. His job closing games won the division past year. If saves 90 % last year, do they win?

The four hottest bats in the ALDS for the Tigers have been Avila, Cabrera, Dirks and Peralta, but we need a few more to come alive as we've gone 5 for 23 with runners in scoring position in this series (and 23 LOB), so hopefully Fielder (.188, 3-16) and Jackson (.200, 3-15) can find a groove tonight and we build a comfortable lead so Verlander can lead us on to victory.

"Funny isn't it, how naughty dentists always make that one fatal mistake."

I'm mildly disappointe Reddick hasn't been earholed already. Probably because Al-Al darn well shouldn't have kissed the baseball and the Tigers likely had a private conversation with him about that, but preaching about maturity after throwing a hissy fit in the dugout can't have sat well either.

If no chin music, I'll settle for the golden sombrero. Dude has 8 Ks in 14 at-bats, so a few more won't hurt. He's got a Rob Deer Average of .667, which is awesome.

It's gotta be JV tonight. We need a shutdown performance so that we can build a lead that not even the Big Potato can hand over. Can Al-Al close out the game? I haven't been happy with Benoit or Valverde lately.

in DC covering the nats/cards for work, but hoping my yanks can close this series today so we don't have to pitch sabathia tomorrow.

as for the tigers, want the tigers to pull out the victory tonight and have their rotation blown up for the ALCS. if the yankees do make it to the LCS, I do not want anything to do with the A's... a tigers team with a messed up rotation is much more appealing.

IF the Tigers play in the ALCS, they would just continue with the rotation they have already established. Fister starts Saturday, Sanchez on Sunday, and Verlander is ready for game 3 on Tuesday. Scherzer starts game 4 on Wednesday. Games 5, 6 and 7 have Fister, Sanchez and Verlander. Nobody needs to pitch on short rest. Verlander pitches today (Thursday), game 3 (Tuesday) and game 7 (Sunday)--all on the regular 5th-day rest.

I know I shouldn't be projecting pitchers for the next series, but there won't be any problem with a "messed up" rotation for Detroit if they do advance.

yes, you are correct, but that game 7 has a very big asterisk next to it. if JV was pitching game 1 rather than 3, you would have your best pitcher available for a game 4 or game 5 - two games which are much more likely to happen than a game 7.

That's kind of a circular argument, though, isn't it? If the series doesn't go 7 games, then one more game pitched by Verlander wouldn't make any difference anyway, because the result of the series would be the same...

In other words, exclude Verlander's second start in the series (ignoring whether it's game 4, 5 or 7). Does it matter whether we start Verlander or Porcello in that game? The answer--it only matters if the other 6 games are split 3 to 3. If the other 6 are 4 wins to 2, it doesn't matter who pitches, because the team with 4 wins has won the series.

To summarize the summary, one single game never matters in a best-of-seven, unless the other 6 games are split 3-3. So having Verlander pitch games 1 and 5 gives the Tigers the exact same value as having him pitch games 3 and 7.

If Verlander was winning a blowout early in game 5, you would have the option of taking him out early, so he could be available to relieve in game 7. Also, you can at least argue that Verlander is most valuable when matching up with the other team's ace.

or put a banana in his tailpipe. I love the OP's sentiment about Morris/Verlander. JV can go 140 pitches tonight ... then the rotation can go Fister-Sanchez-Scherzer-Verlander-Fister-Scherzer-then Verlander in a game 7. What sucked along with everything else about last night is it totally effs up the rotation ... we may have been able to get three starts in the ALCS out of JV, but the rotation I just mentioned above will do. His possible Game 7 start would be on normal rest even if Sanchez is skipped.

"Is there enough magic out there in the moonlight to make this dream come true?"

Man I think you ride Verlander 8 or 9 if he has his stuff. He is a special physical specimen who can throw 100 in the 9th inning, which I'm not sure if anyone has ever been able to do before. And the Tigers bullpen is turrable. And I'm a Brewers fan; I know turrable bullpens.

Orioles win. Gonna take 5, which means the winning team will be playing their 5th consecutive game. Not exactly huge like other sports, but it should help us, especially if Baltimore has to fly to Detroit right after a probable win

Looking ahead, who do you think we match up best with next round? Yanks have no pitching besides CC Fatbathia. Their offense isn't doing well either. O's seem scarier to me. Good mix of vets and youth. Pitching is better as well. Only plus to playing Baltimore is we would be at home. Thoughts?

You know what the funny thing is? I didn't think he had the really good stuff tonight. He was nasty as hell, but not, like, silly good the way he can sometimes be. As far as pure stuff as compared to what he can bring, I think he had his B+ game tonight. And he still just mowed fools down.

Dumbass stats like this are why baseball is awesome: It's the first postseason series in which three runs have scored via wild pitch since 1911. You just don't get that kind of esoteric goofiness in other sports, and not just because of the length of time.